Sr. Program Manager- Engineering Excellence

Make your mark at the world's largest HVAC company!

Daikin Applied is growing and hiring a Sr. Program Manager- Engineering Excellence to join the team. Reporting to the Director, Engineering Excellence, the person in this position will be championed with improving Daikin Applied America's overall product development lifecycle by embedding a continuous improvement and lean product development culture. This position will work directly with our product development teams to improve our processes, tools, and systems to fully unleash their productivity.

What you will do:

Demonstrate expert level competence in understanding the full end-to-end aspects of the product development lifecycle. Be a lean champion and innovative thought leader, focusing on driving standardization, simplification, and digitalization for & across the product development lifecycle. Demonstrate and deploy Lean principles to ensure continuous improvement, deployment and execution of Agile practices.

• Lead and coordinate with Engineering in selecting improvement projects, reporting progress, and ensuring project closure.
• Lead, facilitate, and support actions to drive Engineering improvements to enable us to reach our growth and productivity metrics.
• A thorough understanding of the process improvement strategies and methodologies, with a focus on Lean Product Development.
• Training, mentoring, and guiding team members to create and improve Engineering processes
• Collaborate with cross functional stakeholders to enhance productivity and staff engagement and satisfaction.
• Effectively communicate ideas, opinions and accomplishments to other team and management.
• Lead communication of Engineering continuous improvement initiatives across the organization and perform periodic audits to ensure the process is consistent.

Relationship Management and Deliverables:

• Establish and foster an environment of Continuous Engineering Process Improvement
• Support the vision and strategy that drives continuous improvement in terms of New Product Development, productivity gains, and best practices to ensure consistent product quality across all functions and facilities.
• Lead and support Engineering Kaizen, Continuous Improvement, and CIP projects.
• Mentor and train Engineering leaders and staff in the application of Lean tools applied to engineering processes, e.g. Process Maps, SlPOCs, RACI, and supporting analytics
• Create, deploy, and improve standard work and templates to support Kaizen activities
• Support Engineering Excellence vision and strategy development.
• Build and manage a high performance multi-site engineering excellence team.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Scientific or IT or equivalent combination of education and experience
• 6+ years of progressive experience including 4+ years of direct people leadership experience in Engineering, Manufacturing, Project Management, or related disciplines, with a proven track record of influencing and leading across the end-to-end product development lifecycle, including engineering, operations, manufacturing, supply chain, and sales.
• Proven professional experience leading New Product Introduction (NPI) programs using Stage Gate processes, ensuring cross-functional alignment, milestone adherence, and risk mitigation across product development cycles.
• Experience with and ability to drive and institutionalize robust requirements management processes, ensuring clear traceability, validation, and alignment from concept through launch.
• Strong experience with Lean Six Sigma and Continuous Improvement methodologies, with demonstrated success in deploying enterprise-wide systems, process improvements, and strategic initiatives.
• Demonstrated application of Lean Product Development practices, Agile, and SCRUM methodologies to accelerate product development and enhance cross-functional collaboration.
• Experienced in leading organizational change and driving cultural adoption of process excellence.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree in Engineering, Scientific or IT
• 8+ years of progressive experience including 4+ years of direct people leadership experience in Engineering, Manufacturing, Project Management, or related disciplines, with a proven track record of influencing and leading across the end-to-end product development lifecycle, including engineering, operations, manufacturing, supply chain, and sales.
• Proven leadership of complex programs and/or large-scale projects, with a track record of successful project delivery, team leadership, and cross-functional stakeholder management.
• Strong knowledge of both project management functional deliverables and quality and design engineering principles, manufacturing processes, testing, and inspections, with an ability to bridge gaps between design, manufacturing, and field performance.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to influence at all organizational levels, articulate complex ideas clearly, and lead high-performing technical and cross-functional teams.
• Proficient in MS Office Suite (Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel), SharePoint, Storm Board, Mural, Miro, Agile systems, POL Embedded Features/ Capabilities, Azure DevOps, RPM Resource Reporting, MS Project, Visio, and other project management and collaboration tools.
• Willingness to travel up to 10% annually, based on business needs.

Benefits:

• Daikin Applied offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements:
• Multiple medical insurance plan options + dental and vision insurance
• 401K retirement plan with employer match
• Paid time off and company paid holidays
• Paid sick time in accordance with the federal, state and local law
• Tuition Reimbursement after 6 months of continuous service
  
  

The typical annual base salary for this position ranges from $113,000 - $175,000+ 20% bonus variable bonus in Minnesota. The range displayed represents the pay range for all positions in the job grade which this position falls. Individual base pay will depend on a wide range of factors including your skills, qualifications, experience, and location.